Electronic musical instrument having pedal tone prominence circuit

ABSTRACT

An electronic musical instrument comprises a manual keyboard with an associated manual tone playing circuit and a pedal keyboard with an associated pedal tone playing circuit. To the pedal tone playing circuit is added a pedal tone prominence circuit comprising an additional tone coloring circuit for increasing higher harmonic components of the pedal tone signal, a tone gate circuit for gating the signal through the additional tone coloring circuit, and a gating signal shaper circuit connected between the manual tone playing circuit and the tone gate circuit for opening the latter upon detection of manual tone signal being played. While the manual tones are being played, the pedal tone has increased harmonic components.

United States Patent 11 1 Adachi 1451 Apr. 9, 1974 [54] ELECTRONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT 3,549,777 12 1970 Bunger 84/].03 HAVING PEDAL TONE PRONHNENCE 3,598,892 8/197! Yamashita 84/].0l CIRCUIT 3,626,075 l2/l97l Hiyama 84/l.l9 X [75] Inventor: Takeshi Adachi, Hamamatsu, Japan p i Examiner Richard Wilkinson 73 Assignees Nippon Gakki Seizo Kabushiki Assistant Examiner-ll Weldon Kaisha9 Hamamatswshi, Japan Attorney, Agent, or F1rm-Holman & Stern [22] Filed. Dec. 28, 1971 ABSTRACT [21] Appl' 212951 An electronic musical instrument comprises a manual keyboard with an associated manual tone playing cir- [30] Foreign Application Priority Data cuit and a pedal keyboard with an associated pedal Dec. 28, 1970 Japan 45-119632 tone Playing Circuit T0 the Pedal 0116 Playing Circuit is added a pedal tone prominence circuit comprising 52 us. c1 84/1.17, 84/11 1, 84/l.l9 an additional I999 coloring circuit for increasing 51 Int. Cl. GlOf 1/02 higher harmonic Components of the Pedal tone Signal 58 Field of Search s4/1.-01, 1.07, 1.11, 1.12, a tone gate circuit for gating the Signal through the g 2 7 D168, D1023, L03, ditional tone coloring circuit, and a gating signal 117, L24 shaper circuit connected between the manual tone playing circuit and the tone gate circuit for opening [56] R f c Cited the latter upon detection of manual tone signal being UNITED STATES PATENTS played. While the manual tones are being played, the

pedal tone has increased harmonic components. 3,565,995 2/1971 Bunger 84/l.17 3,488,515 1/1970 Hiyoshi 84/].01 X 3 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure LOWER KEYBOARD TONE GEVERATOR TONE KEYER TONE-COLOR CIRCUIT MNQ T PEDAL KEYBOARD ELECTRONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT HAVING PEDAL TONE PROMINENCE CIRCUIT BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to an electronic musical instrument,v and more particularly, to an electronic musical instrument having a pedal tone prominence circuit which renders the tone color of the pedal tones automatically variable in such a manner that the pedal tones have more harmonic components when the manual tones are being played together than when the pedal tone is being played alone.

An inadequacy of conventional electronic musical instruments is that, in performance such as depressing keys of the manual and pedal keyboards simultaneously, the pedal tone is masked by sound colors of the manual tone, whereby it is extremely difficult to recognize clearly the existence of the pedal tone distinguishing from the manual tone. Raising the pedal tone volume to eliminate this defect has not been successful in that the over-all volume balance is lost.

In order to overcome this drawback, the characteristics of tone-color circuits may be so designed that more harmonic content is included. Although this method may be satisfactory for the production of clear pedal tones in the case of simultaneous production of the manual and pedal tones, favorable pedal tones could not be obtained in the case of production of pedal tones alone.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is a general object of this invention to overcome the various difficulties accompanying conventional electronic musical instruments as described above.

It is therefore a primary object of this invention to provide an electronic musical instrument wherein the tone color of the pedal tone is automatically changed to have more harmonic components when the manual tones are being played together than when the pedal an improved circuit structure for electronic musical instruments featuring outstanding effects such as production of clear pedal tone colors and a great increase in sensation of the volume and the loudness in the case of simultaneous production of manual and pedal tones.

Other objects, features and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawmg.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The single FIGURE in the drawing is a block diagram showing the essential organization of an embodiment of this invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to the FIGURE, there are provided tone generators 1, and musical tone signals generated by the generators 1 are supplied to upper keyboard tone keyers 2 associated with an upper manual keyboard UK, lower keyboard tone keyers 3 associated with a lower manual keyboard LK, and a latching selector 4 for selecting a single desired tone signal at a time from among a plurality of tone signals.

Musical tone signals from the upper and lower keyboard tone keyers 2 and 3 pass respectively through tone-color circuits 5 and 6 and level controls TVR, and TVR and through a manual balancer MB, an amplifier A an expression control VC, and a main amplifier A for conversion into sound via a loudspeaker SP. A signal from the latching selector 4 is frequency-divided by a frequency divider 7 before being supplied to a pedal keyboard tone keyer 8. This arrangement including the latching selector 4, the frequency divider 7 and the tone keyer 8 is now used in electronic musical instruments available in the market, and is described in US. Pat. Nos. 3,488,515 to I-Iiyoshi and 3,598,892 to Yamashita. A pedal tone signal from the pedal keyboard tone keyer 8 is supplied to each of a first tone-color circuit 9 and a second tone-color circuit 10. As illustrated, a tone gate circuit 11 is connected to the output of the second tone-color circuit 10, and the outputs of the tone gate circuit 11 and the first tone-color circuit 9 are fed to a level control TVR The tone generators I, the tone keyers 2, the tone-color circuit 5, the level control TVR,, the tone keyers 3, the tone-color circuit 6,

the level control TVR,, and the manual balancer MB constitute a manual tone playing circuit, while the tone generators I, the latching selector 4, the frequency divider 7, the tone keyer 8, the tone-color circuit 9 and the level control TVR constitute a pedal tone playing circuit.

A portion of the musical tone signal from the lower keyboard tone keyer 3 is supplied to a gating signal shaper 12 of the type as shown in US. Pat. No. 3,565,995 to Bugner, for detecting the existence of the lower keyboard tone signal and producing a gating signal which is supplied subsequently to the gating terminal of the tone gate circuit 11. Gating signal shaper 12 constitutes a well-known functional element in the electronic musical instrument art and is of conventional construction, such as is shown in US. Pat. No. 3,609,203 to Adachi. The tone gate circuit 11 permits the musical tone signal from the second tone-color circuit 10 to pass therethrough to the output side only in the case of application of the gating signal.

When a key of the pedal keyboard PK is depressed while the lower keyboard is not being depressed, no musical tone signal is delivered from the lower keyboard tone keyers 3 with the consequence that no gating signal is delivered from the gating signal shaper 12. This results in the closing of the tone gate circuit and the prohibition of passage of the musical tone signal from the second tone-color circuit 10 to the output thereof. Therefore, a suitable tone-color formation for the musical ton'e signal from the pedal keyboard tone keyer 8 is accomplished by only the first tone-color circuit 9.

When a key of the pedal keyboard is depressed with the keys of the lower keyboard being depressed, this results in the opening of the gating circuit 11 and the passage of the musical tone signal from the pedal keyboard tone keyer 8 through the second tone-color circuit 10 and the tone gate circuit ll. The tone signal therefrom is mixed with the tone signal from the first tone-color circuit 9 at a suitable level. The second tone-color circuit 10 is designed to have a tone coloring characteristic of passing more harmonic components than the first tone-color circuit 9. Consequently, there is obtained a harmonic-rich pedal tone which is increased in the sensation of both volume and the recognition of the pitch, and which can be recognized clearly being distinguished from the lower keyboard tones. With the new and improved circuit arrangement for electronic musical instruments as described above, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that outstanding effects can be achieved over conventional circuit organizations in the case of simultaneous playing of manual and pedal tones, such as the production of clear pedal tones and the distinct sensation in volume and pitch.

While the present invention has been described in conjunction with the preferred embodiment in which the input signal of the gating signal shaper is derived from the output of the lower keyboard tone keyers 3, it will be apparent that the gating signal may be derived from the output of the upper keyboard tone keyers 2 as shown by a dotted line, and that other modifications may be contrived without substantially departing from the spirit and scope of this invention.

I claim:

1. An electronic musical instrument comprising a manual keyboard; a'manual tone playing circuit having circuit elements including tone generators, tone keyers connected to said tone generators, and a tone-color circuit connected to said tone keyers,'said tone keyers being associated with said manual keyboard; a pedal keyboard; a pedal tone playing circuit including tone generators, a tone keyer connected to said tone generators, and a first tone-color circuit for pedal tone signals connected to said tone keyer, said tone keyer being associated with said pedal keyboard; a series connection of a second tone-color circuit which only passes pedal tone signals and a tone gate circuit, said series con nected second tone-color circuit and tone gate being connected in parallel with said first tone-color circuit; said second tone-color circuit having a tone coloring characteristic of passing more harmonic components of pedal tones than said first tone-color circuit; and a gating signal shaper means coupled between said tone keyer and said tone color circuit of said manual tone playing circuit and said tone gate circuit for producing a gating signal in response to the presence of tone signals generated by said manual tone playing circuit, said gating signal opening said tone gate circuit for passing pedal tone signals therethrough.

2. The circuit organization for electronic musical instruments according to claim 1, wherein said manual keyboard is a lower keyboard.

3. The circuit organization for electronic musical instruments according to claim 1, wherein said manual keyboard is an upper keyboard. 

1. An electronic musical instrument comprising a manual keyboard; a manual tone playing circuit having circuit elements including tone generators, tone keyers connected to said tone generators, and a tone-color circuit connected to said tone keyers, said tone keyers being associated with said manual keyboard; a pedal keyboard; a pedal tone playing circuit including tone generators, a tone keyer connected to said tone generators, and a first tone-color circuit for pedal tone signals connected to said tone keyer, said tone keyer being associated with said pedal keyboard; a series connection of a second tonecolor circuit which only passes pedal tone signals and a tone gate circuit, said series connected second tone-color circuit and tone gate being connected in parallel with said first tone-color circuit; said second tone-color circuit having a tone coloring characteristic of passing more harmonic components of pedal tones than said first tone-color circuit; and a gating signal shaper means coupled between said tone keyer and said tone color circuit of said manual tone playing circuit and said tone gate circuit for producing a gating signal in response to the presence of tone signals generated by said manual tone playing circuit, said gating signal opening said tone gate circuit for passing pedal tone signals therethrough.
 2. The circuit organization for electronic musical instruments according to claim 1, wherein said manual keyboard is a lower keyboard.
 3. The circuit organization for electronic musical instruments according to claim 1, wherein said manual keyboard is an upper keyboard. 